


what a mess

by tiredRobin



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Also kind of, Alternate Universe, Anxiety, Concept, Ficlet, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Incomplete, Lowercase, Or Is It?, POV Chara (Undertale), Panic Attacks, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Selectively Mute Frisk (Undertale), Sharing a Body, Sign Language, True Reset, Undertale True Reset, all lowercase, flowey might be OOC, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22811764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredRobin/pseuds/tiredRobin
Summary: "do you remember—?" chara asks.or, well, they try to, but the effort it takes to move frisk's lips is insurmountable, and chara finds that they can't do it. frisk is just as surprised as they are—the easy switch between who controls which movement is so familiar to both of them now that having it suddenly take such effort just toblinkis startling, to say the least.—chara and frisk wake up in the flowerbed. it's too familiar.
Relationships: Chara & Flowey & Frisk (Undertale), Chara & Frisk (Undertale)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 55





	what a mess

**Author's Note:**

> ayo thanks for reading! this is a concept ficlet that i wrote for because undertale is always in the back of my mind and i will always have ideas that i never have the focus or energy to write. 
> 
> more information will be on the endnote, if you're curious! if not, i hope you enjoy!!!

"do you remember—?" chara asks.

or, well, they try to, but the effort it takes to move frisk's lips is insurmountable, and chara finds that they can't do it. frisk is just as surprised as they are—the easy switch between who controls which movement is so familiar to both of them now that having it suddenly take such effort just to _blink_ is startling, to say the least. 

at least they don't need to repeat themself, because frisk heard their question anyways. frisk nods, staring down at the bright golden flowers cushioning their hands and knees. chara can feel the voiceless confusion rolling around in them, barely smothering the dull, bitter taste of a growing dread.

wordlessly, the two reach an agreement; frisk receeds, and chara pushes forward.

the sensation of being _there_ so suddenly is—it's too much. the world slams into them with so much clarity, and it should be familiar and in so many ways it _is_ but in so many other ways it _isn't,_ and—chara seems to have forgotten what it's like to have a body at all because their arms go lax and buckle beneath them, and they plant facefirst into the flowers. when frisk takes over to push them back up, it doesn't feel like—like they're manipulating one control stick out of two; it feels as though chara is being forcefully ejected from the captain's chair. the deep sensation of _bad_ and _wrong_ overtakes them so quickly that the panic that follows is overwhelming.

chara isn't sure how long it takes to calm down. it feels like seconds, it could have been hours. they come to to find their— _frisk's_ fists crushing two handfuls of flowers, their body huddled in the middle of the bed.

—

it takes a little bit to figure it out, but eventually they get it.

the world's been reset.

their hands are so small, their nails bitten down to the skin, their wrists still throbbing dully with old and new cuts. frisk trips over and almost starts crying from how big they feel inside such a tiny body. chara feels horribly numb, and horribly far away.

funny thing, that. in some corner of their mind, they remember how _real_ the world felt when they first woke up in frisk's soul. it hadn't been until after frisk's encounter with flowey, when frisk was still smarting with the phantom aches of dozens of thrown bullets. for the first time in—in ages, chara had woken up, and everything had felt so real. 

now, though, everything is suffocating beneath disconnect.

"i didn't—" frisk tries to say, but the words rasp in their throat so hard that they begin coughing. chara thinks that they must be frowning once the coughing passes—it's hard to tell when the body they wear doesn't feel like theirs anymore. 

_i didn't reset,_ frisk completes the thought inside their head.

 _i know,_ chara whispers back—it feels like a whisper, they feel so small and quiet and it's terrifying, but the fear is also far away and hard to reach. _me neither._

their fingers fumble through the words. "why are we back? why—what happened?"

this, at least, isn't something chara has forgotten. frisk still needs—needed?—to sign well into adulthood, and chara knows how to read them from behind just as well as any language. even if they couldn't, the general meaning still echoes in the mindspace they share, wordless but comprehensible.

 _i don't know,_ they say, after a moment. _i didn't—i don't know._

—

neither of them remember everything very well.

it's all _there—_ their journey through the underground, saving the monsters, climbing to the surface and forging a life there, piece by piece, bit by bit. it's there but it isn't, lost beneath a haze, faded and fractured and scattered like an old toybin upturned.

frisk has to breathe through another anxiety attack. chara manages to keep it together, utilizing the horrible, horrible distance between mind and body to regulate their own panicked response.

and then they remember flowey. 

it's enough to unstick them. chara's thoughts race as frisk picks themself up from the ground and strides forward. how long has it been? will—how did this go, again? will mom already be there? will they not get to see flowey? 

will flowey remember?

frisk falters briefly when chara's worries echo through them, but they don't stop. they stride straight through the stone archway.

and—

there he is.

flowey looks up at them when they enter the room. there is no smile on his face. frisk stops, and for a moment they are all frozen in time.

"you reset," flowey says, expression blank. 

well, that answers that. immediately, frisk shakes their head. "i thought—" they voice, but anxiety makes the words stick in their underused throat, and frisk has to clear it. they lift their hands to complete the thought. "i thought that maybe you might have—"

"i CAN'T," flowey snarls suddenly, vehement and enraged, and chara feels something surge through them—and then the world is mapped in black and green, and frisk's soul shines through them. "YOU RESET. _WHY DID YOU RESET."_

frisk doesn't have time to respond before a bullet is whizzing towards them. they manage to dodge, just barely, and beneath the frantic energy bounding through them chara notices how there's only one bullet. hadn't there been more, that first time? or was it always one? 

their turn. 

their... turn?

chara's almost _positive_ they didn't have the chance to do anything, that first time. chara hadn't been awake at this point, but frisk—hadn't frisk said that they didn't have any chances? 

"we didn't!" frisk signs frantically—an ACT, because of course they wouldn't attack. 

"YOU HAD TO HAVE RESET," flowey snarls. "I _CAN'T._ NO ONE ELSE CAN. **YOU** CAN." another bullet flies at them, only one, and—

chara thinks they get it.

frisk dodges this one, too, stumbling a little in this too-small, unfamiliar body. chara surges forward against the distance keeping them so far away from everything, but they aren't strong enough. their soul—the dust motes of it that remain—it isn't strong enough. not yet.

 _frisk!_ chara calls out, but their voice is drowned out by the flood of worry and anxiety and fear whirling through frisk.

"we didn't, flowey," frisk repeats, hands fast and desperate, shaking a little. "we wouldn't do that!"

flowey doesn't seem to be really listening. he looks so angry. _"THEN WHO!?"_ he cries. two bullets, this time, and chara thrashes, but they can't get control. they can't take control. frisk dodges—they deny it again, hands shaking so hard it's a wonder chara understands it at all—and flowey doesn't offer a response. it's suddenly a dozen bullets and frisk isn't fast enough to get out of their way, and one strikes true.

the pain—sharp, sudden, a flash of light in the dim tunnel that chara resides within—it's enough. frisk's control slips and chara surges forward immediately. "flowey!" they shout, and frisk's throat kills the word halfway through, but their voice is enough to echo through the cavern and across the gridwork battlefield between them.

flowey's snarling face freezes. 

_finally._ frisk still hasn't taken control, and chara slumps immediately. when did having a body feel so _heavy?_ the past—the future?—is hazy, but chara doesn't remember their shared body ever feeling like this. "we didn't reset," they say firmly. the words croak, and chara clears frisk's throat. "i promise. we didn't reset. but it's okay, right? it's okay." they pull chapped lips into a wide smile, and it feels fake and stiff and doesn't fit right, and it's exactly what they need right now because frisk never smiles with plastic.

slowly, achingly slowly, flowey's petals slump. his snarl melts into something hopeful and desperate all at once, and he stares at them with eyes reminiscent of a face chara hasn't seen in—

in a long time.

"chara?" he asks.

chara nods. flowey looks like he might cry.

**Author's Note:**

> again, thank you for reading!!! if you have any thoughts or ideas, leave a comment maybe? up to you! below this is more information on my own thoughts behind this AU, so read on if you'd like!
> 
> —
> 
> i actually have this concept in a thousand different ways—sometimes, frisk resets, and sometimes chara, and sometimes it's because of a panic attack or because frisk died unexpectedly or because something went terribly wrong or someone had an existential crisis. for THIS particular work:
> 
> • before the Reset, flowey was taken with frisk and chara to the surface (floweypot au! didn't tag it because it's not mentioned in the fic itself)  
> • in the OG timeline, chara "wakes up" inside frisk after the first encounter with flowey  
> • frisk and chara share a body! think of it as being, like, drift compatible; as they traverse the underground, chara gets more strength and influence, and frisk and chara both learn how to share soul and body (because chara's soul is latched onto frisk's).  
> • the reason why chara is so weak again is because both their souls have reset along with the timeline. that's also why their memories are hazy. everything feels weird and new and bad because everything is very different from how they were before the reset, and it's scary and overwhelming. imagine how you might feel if you suddenly woke up in your seven-year-old body! very confusing and stressful, i imagine.  
> • the Player or Gaster is likely at fault for this reset  
> • it isn't a TRUE reset due to the fact that frisk, chara, and flowey all remember things for the most part  
> • no one else remembers anything except for rare moments of deja vu and sometimes dreams that are forgotten upon waking up, but sans' machine did pick up on a hugelarge massive giant spike in the timeline maybe (because in this scenario, that's what the basement machine does) and the way frisk (and chara) behave is very telling that something happened  
> • hypothetically, frisk, chara, and flowey have to traverse the story AGAIN, as a terrible mixture of traumatized adults forced back into the bodies and mentalities of their childhood selves, and it's... an experience, to say the least  
> • flowey probably has to do the whole... stealing Everyone's souls thing. again. to break the barrier. wahoo....  
> • could potentially lead to exploration of gaster's story, or my headcanons regarding it lmao
> 
> it most likely will never come to fruition! but i wrote this because i was bored, my drawing tablet wire is broken, and im procrastinating on actually cleaning the house like i need to.
> 
> i'm so open to discussion or ideas, though, because HOUGHGHhghg i still love undertale (':
> 
> ok that's enough rambling from me i hope u have a good night !!!!!!!!!1111


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